Strictly Come Dancing's Emma, Josh and Johannes will perform a dance in the 2026 launch show: "It's terrifying!"
There is also a great new twist to pair the celebs and prosEmma Willis, Josh Widdicombe and Johannes Radebe will perform a surprise dance during Strictly Come Dancing’s launch show .
The new hosting trio revealed the unexpected routine during an appearance on BBC’s The One Show.
And Emma admits she found the entire thing “terrifying”.
The judges were all watching them at the time, but Johannes, unsurprisingly, brushed it off as the “easy part” of filming the 2026 launch.
Strictly Come Dancing hosts to perform surprise routine
Emma, Josh and Johannes will be making their Strictly presenting debut in tomorrow’s show. They are taking over from Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman, who quit last year.
During their appearance on The One Show, host Alex Jones asked them: “You are all dancing, aren’t you?”
Emma revealed: “Yes!” She added: “It was terrifying.” Shrugging his shoulders, Johannes said: “It was the easy part.”
Josh explained: “We had to do this big performance with all the dancers, the celebrities and the judges. We were waiting to film and I just felt this…”
Josh demonstrated on Johannes. He put his hands around Johannes’ neck and pulled his head upwards.
“It was Shirley going, ‘Your posture, bring it up!'”
Emma also confessed that she “likes to be thorough, so got her practice in beforehand. “Jojo had been teaching us and had been like, ‘1, 2, 3, 4 and 5, 6, 7 cha cha cha!” So I was literally going around the supermarket with a trolley doing it.”
The presenter even admitted to practicing the routine in the garden with her Busted star husband, Matt Wills. She said she recorded their efforts and sent the footage to Johannes to check she was doing it correctly.
Speed dancing reveal
The trio also shared another surprise element to tomorrow night’s launch show. Emma explained how the viewers will discover who is partnered with who in a brand new “speed dancing” segment.
“There’s a lot of movement,” Emma said. “This is something they have never done before. Everyone is paired during a dance. They’ll be paired like speed dancing, as you would with speed dating.
“They’ve all learned a routine, the music will start and they will dance. We’re stood at the side and go, ‘change partners’.”
Emma said they will continue asking them to switch throughout the routine: “They never know when that rotation is going to stop,” she revealed.
Josh added: “It’s so entertaining that I think we should just do it every week!”
When does the Strictly Come Dancing launch show start?
The Strictly Come Dancing launch show airs tomorrow evening (Saturday September 19, 2026). The programme starts at 7.25pm and you can watch it on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.
We like the sound of these new additions to the format, do you?
Read more: Strictly Come Dancing unveils brand new show Strictly Pro Dance Off for 2026 series
